In Ancient Egypt, around 2900 B.C. there were several problems being created as the result of conflict of what to write on. They needed something to be easily transported while at the same time, easily written on. At first, they started with cave writing with rocks, the problem with this is it wasn't structurally strong enough to keep writing on for a long period of time. For this reason, they searched for a better, longer lasting material that could keep writing on it and would not rip as easily.
Figure 1: This shows how Papyrus was used for art
Figure 2: This shows the discovery of the Cyprus plant and how they made this into papyrus
After the outburst of cravenness of a item that could fill out all of these check boxes. Egyptians went out and found a plant that they thought could work. They found a plant called the Cyprus Plant. The Cyprus Plant was not only easily moved but also could keep information and writing on it for centuries. In fact, archaeologists have found this ancient papyrus and, even after several centuries, it was still intact with understandable writing on it. The only thing they needed to do was find a way to convert the big leaves of the plant into the much more slim version of paper.
Figure 3: This shows the process of them making Cyperus Plant leaves into Papyrus plant
Searching for an amazing plant that would keep its strong structure was the start to their plan to paper. After finding this Cyprus plant, they needed to find an amazing, easy to learn, step-by-step process to make this rich writing paper. They first had to cut the green stalk off of the plant, which was very close to the waterline of the plant. Doing so, this eliminated the flowering head and exposed the triangle pith, which was the big thing that they needed. Following this step, the pith was stripped into much smaller, more individual pieces. And finally, the last step was to set the last strips together into different directions and they had their golden invention.
Through time, people started to realize just how important this papyrus was to everyone in Egypt. To start, the Cyprus plant was so abundant in Egypt that it could be used for daily items such as sandals, baskets, and even small boats. But the main item they obtained from this was power and money. See, the Cyprus plant did not just grow anywhere. In fact, the Nile river and Central Egypt was the only places you could find this plant back in the ancient times. Because of this, Egypt could sell papyrus for a giant price and still get the money from everyone around the world. This is how every other Civilizations started writing.
Figure 4: This image displays the ancient Egyptians trading this very valuable item for other, maybe even more expensive items.